Day Twenty-Nine: Keeping it Up-ish

We tried to go sailing today, but alas, it rained. We, and half the universe defaulted to the Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores instead. Normally, we walk on all the nature trails at the aquarium, so it felt a bit odd to be stuck inside with the rain, but it was still entertaining. The kids of course had a blast!

Vacation means plenty of opportunities for food cheating, and I can't say I was perfect, though I didn't totally lose it. I had some whole wheat bread, a 16-ounce vanilla chai latte, and a small glass of (absolutely delightful) wine with dinner.

I managed to walk a lot, do all my ab work, and be fairly active, while simultaneously managing to color in my new coloring book and generally chill out. Feels like vacation to me. :)

Log:

Exercise: 

• Walk on the Beach: 2.68
• Day 29 of the 30 Day Abs Challenge: 120 sit ups, 62 leg raises, 190 crunches,  115 second plank

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: tea with 2% milk and 1/2 a tsp of raw sugar, a boiled egg, half a honeycrisp apple
• Lunch: Lunch at the Village Market in Emerald Isle: chicken salad on whole wheat and a few slices of marinated cucumbers
• Dinner: grouper baked in parchment with baby lima beans, garlic, and lemon, a few bites of quinoa and brown rice, a small glass of wine
• Snacks: 1 Babybel, 16-oz vanilla chai latte from 4 J's Coffee Shop at Emerald Isle

Stats:

• Steps: 12023
• Calories: 1237 consumed, 218 burned
• Weight: no scale at the beach

Pretty Thing From My Walk

Can't Live Without My Fitbit

I just ordered this from Amazon, and had it shipped to the beach house:

I forgot mine, and the charge on my Fitbit isn't going to make more than a couple more days. I know I'm on vacation and all, but a girl has to keep up with her steps.

Days Twenty-Seven and Twenty-Eight: Packing and Heading to the Beach

I'm at the beach! Yay!

However, working a full day when the kid has early release from school, and packing for the beach at the same time makes this mama a freakishly busy person with no time or thought to give to fitness, eating, or blogging. I had no time to eat breakfast, then ate a late lunch because I had to get to the school to get the kid. Last night I was packing like a crazy thing while still doing laundry, and my friend Meredith was arriving, and there was all kinds of frenzied activity. I literally forgot to do my ab work, let alone blog about the day. I skipped zumba on purpose, though I felt a little bad about that. But there it was, 11:40pm, and I realized as I was crawling into the bed that no ab work had been done and not one thing had been logged for the day. I did manage to eat decently, though not enough calories. I thought I had eaten so much food till today when I logged the calories--skipping a meal is a mistake.

Today, I made up for the calorie thing yesterday. We ate a good breakfast, but then lunch on the road at Chick-Fil-A while driving. One cannot eat a salad while driving, and I knew that we were going out for dinner, too, so I just declared today a cheater day. And how. I ate more calories for lunch than I ate all of yesterday. Ugh. Not only that, after Chick-Fil-A for lunch and fried seafood for dinner, I feel like crap on toast. I will NOT be doing that again tomorrow--I want green things.

Today should have been day 28 of the ab workout, which is a rest day, so I just did day 27's workout today, and I will skip the rest day. Only two more days to go, which is hard to believe. Now, I need to figure out what ab work I am going to keep as part of my daily workout. I definitely need to keep going with the ab work--I can already see and feel a difference in my body from the past 28 days of dedicated and targeted work.

Tomorrow begins my official vacation, and I plan to walk and walk and walk. I brought hand weights, a medicine ball, and resistance bands with me, so I am going to try to fit in some mild strength training as well. And there will be stretching--I want to stretch every day.

Day 27 Log:

Exercise: 

• Does packing count?

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: N/A
• Lunch: big salad with lots of veggies, avocado, and turkey breast, with honey dijon dressing, muhammara and 5 pretzel thins
• Dinner: a small grass fed ribeye, French green beans with olive oil and porcini salt, heirloom tomato salad
• Snacks: 1 mozzarella Babybel

Stats:

• Steps: 5965
• Calories: 732 consumed, 57 burned
• Weight: 201 (home)

Day 28 Log:

Exercise: 

• Day 27 of the 30 Day Abs Challenge: 115 sit ups, 62 leg raises, 180 crunches,  110 second plank

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: two eggs scrambled with cheese, microgreens, little tomatoes, watermelon
• Lunch: Chick-Fil-A sandwich and fries with iced tea
• Dinner: went to Frost, a fried seafood joint at the beach (tradition)--I split a popcorn shrimp plate with Meredith with a side of squash casserole and a small salad with ranch dressing
• Snacks: N/A

Stats:

• Steps: 5407
• Calories: 1978 consumed, burned
• Weight: no scale at the beach

Day Twenty-Six: Resisting Serious Temptation

Today my company had a team event at an Irish pub with a reputation for delicious food and a huge menu covered in things like open faced roast beef sandwiches with gravy and mashed potatoes, burgers, sweet potato fries, etc. But I was good--I ordered some grilled pork loin with cabbage and applesauce. It came with a roll, which I gave away, and a salad, from which I removed the croutons. Go me.

Meanwhile, I have hit a failure point on the plank situation. I can hold it for a minute and 21 seconds, and then my wrist gives out. I can finish it out on my elbows, but it feels like wimping out. Further, I am frustrated as all get out that I haven't had time to go on walks this week. It's making me tense, and I feel like I am falling behind. We're going to the beach on Saturday, and I am hoping I can walk and walk and walk on that shoreline while I'm there...

Today's Log:

Exercise:

• Barbell Strength Class with Tracy at the Apex gym
• Day 26 of the 30 Day Abs Challenge (110 sit ups, 170 crunches, 60 leg raises, 100 second plank--I was 20 seconds short)

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: 2 cups of hot tea with 2% milk and 1/2 tsp raw sugar each, two egg omelet with tomatoes, avocado, turkey bacon, and Parmesan, served with a pile of microgreens
• Lunch: work lunch at O'Malley's Irish Pub & Grill in Raleigh: grilled pork loin chops, stewed cabbage, applesauce, a garden salad with balsamic vinaigrette, iced tea
• Dinner: a small grass fed ribeye, French green beans with olive oil and porcini salt, sauteed mushrooms
• Snacks: 1 mozzarella Babybel

Stats:

• Steps: 4012 (UGH!)
• Calories: 1219 consumed, 280 burned
• Weight: 201 (home)

Day Twenty-Five: Getting it Back

Today was all about getting it back on track. As Jason has told me many times, it's unrealistic to think you can stay focused 100% of the time. The measure of overall success comes from how well you can get yourself back in gear after a lapse. Sadly, it was WAY too hot out to go walking at lunch, but I made up for it in other ways.

I needed to make up for lost time on the abs challenge the past couple of days, so I did two days' worth today to catch up: day 23 in the afternoon and day 25 before bed. I had to skip the plank for day 25--my poor core just was DONE. And let me tell you--that was enough for one day. I'll try to do that plank in the morning or something. I am still hating planks with every fiber of my being, and I still have some range of motion issue with the ab exercises in general because of scar tissue, but it has gotten a ton better over the past few weeks. Further, I can tell a difference in how my pants are fitting, which is a wonderful, awesome, motivating thing! The other night, I told Kieran he needed to get to bed so I could go finish my ab work, and he goes, "More sit ups, Mom?!" And I said, "Yep! Every night!" And he said, "Well, you're looking really good, Mama!" Awwww...

Meanwhile, the food thing is still pretty much good. I am allowing a few carbs and natural sugars here and there, but nothing over the top. I am keeping my calorie count low and still focussing on eating mostly lean proteins, good fats, and lots of veggies. I feel pretty good about how this is all going so far.

Today's Log:

Exercise:

• Day 23 of the 30 Day Abs Challenge (100 sit ups, 150 crunches, 58 leg raises, 90 second plank)
• Day 25 of the 30 Day Abs Challenge (105 sip ups, 160 crunches, 60 leg raises, 95 second plank)
• Zumba with Tiffany at the Cary gym--still my favorite class!

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: 2 cups of hot tea with 2% milk and 1/2 tsp raw sugar each, two eggs scrambled with cheese, little tomatoes, microgreens
• Lunch: baked salmon with yellow squash, arugula salad with radishes, walnuts, and goat cheese with champagne caper vinaigrette
• Dinner:sauteed zucchini with peppers, onions and chicken, brown rice, watermelon
• Snacks:a little muhammara and 5 pretzel thins

Stats:

• Steps:11301
• Calories: 1373 consumed, 822 burned
• Weight: 201.5 (home)

Day Twenty-Four: Weigh-In Day and Still Off Track

When my alarm went off at 5am this morning telling me to get up and go to my barbell strength class, I still felt pretty ill. I skipped it. I hate that--I know rationally that skipping it was the right thing to do, but man, I dislike feeling like I have wimped out! Further, I had a hair appointment this morning, which means to time for a lunchtime walk. I optimistically brought my shoes with me, just in case, but I knew it was a long shot. And no, it didn't happen. I am not beating myself up about this or anything, but I do want to find a way to make it up.

I did stop by the gym to weigh in at least, and was delighted to be officially down a bit more. I am down 8.4 pounds by the official scale, which is about 4 pounds heavier than the scale at home is measuring. Good progress so far, and motivating to see. Yay!

Upon analysis of what I ate yesterday, I think my nausea may have been coming from the fact that I just didn't consume enough calories yesterday. It seems clear that to feel good and have energy, I can't go much below 1100 calories, or things start to feel off. This morning, I didn't eat breakfast at all, which is out of the ordinary for me, and I feel a bit like I paid for that throughout the day. I was sluggish and lower-energy all day long. And yet, here I am at the end of today in nearly the same caloric boat. Tomorrow, I will get up and eat a good breakfast, and just hit a giant reset button for everything.

I went to knitting tonight, and at dinner at Panera. I chose the soba noodle broth bowl since the grains were whole in the noodles, and I wanted something more filling than a salad after skipping breakfast today. I definitely got it--I am still stuffed hours later! I think my body is in carb shock.

Today's Log:

Exercise:

• Not crap--today was a day with no time in it, and I am now officially off a day on the 30 day abs challenge. Dammit. I will do day 23 tomorrow, skip 24 (the rest day), and if I can stand it, the next rest day, too, to make up time. Ugh.

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: hot tea with 2% milk and 1/2 tsp raw sugar - didn't eat anything because I was still feeling nauseated---bleh!
• Lunch: chicken breast with grilled asparagus, mushrooms, and peppers, little tomatoes, arugula salad with radishes, walnuts, and goat cheese with champagne caper vinaigrette, a small honeycrisp apple
• Dinner:Panera's soba noodle broth bowl--SO SALTY! iced tea
• Snacks:24 almonds, 1 Babybel, a little muhammara and 3 pretzel thins

Stats:

• Steps: 4713
• Calories: 1215 consumed, 0 burned
• Weight: 201.5 (home), 205.9 (Official Weigh-in, -8.4 lbs)